The Death of Henry the Magnificent
by risenfromash
Summary: While Vera is away Apollo fails in one of his responsibilities and spends an evening trying to make it right with the help of Nick/Maya, Ema, Klavier, and Trucy.


Risenfromash: As the title indicates this story marks the death of one of my favorite OC s. If you've read the other stories in the Vera/Polly Nick/Maya story arc you will know him. If not it doesn't matter. This occurs shortly after the events of _The Things We Do For Love._

_When last we left Apollo Justice and his girlfriend, Vera Misham, Vera was in Europe with Interpol assisting their criminal investigation teams in exchange for her name being cleared of all forgery charges. While the bargain was attractive, Apollo didn't want her to leave and three days before her departure they broke up because she refused to stay in the U.S. Vera allowed Apollo to continue living in their apartment and indicated she would consider reconciling when she returned six to nine months later…_

THE DEATH OF HENRY THE MAGNIFICENT

"Polly! Get up! Now!" I felt the bedding being whisked off my body and I leapt out of bed knocking my cell phone to the floor.

"Trucy! What the hell are you doing?"

"Getting you up. They rescheduled the trial and we need to be at the courthouse in an hour."

"Why didn't you just call?" I whined embarrassed that Trucy who was, of course, fully dressed and ready to face the day was standing in front of me while I wore nothing but my underwear.

"I did call, but you've obviously been talking to Vera all night and run your battery down." She pointed at the phone that had fallen from the bed when she had uncovered me. "If you two are going to have phone sex you ought to at least plug in your cell."

I rolled my eyes at her as I gathered a sheet around myself so I didn't feel quite so violated. "For your information, Miss Know-it-All, we weren't having phone sex. We were discussing European art."

Trucy's lips curled up into a smile. "And did you understand anything she was talking about?"

I grinned from ear to ear as I ran into the bathroom, "Not a thing!"

~xxxx~

The trial went well despite Klavier's dirty trick of adjusting the court schedule. I managed to prove that our client Mr. Don Herin had only killed his horse trainer as an act of self-defense after the horse trainer had tried to brand him. It was a bizarre case and presented quite a challenge. So to celebrate our victory Truce and I decided to go to the movies.

Truce was supposed to meet me at my place about six thirty so we'd have time to get to the theatre and watch _Converters_ and still get home at a decent hour since it was a weeknight. I was excited.

_I'm gonna see kick-ass robots and not just big robots. Ginormous robots that convert into automobiles and appliances. Oh, yeah! Time to get my geek on! Too bad Vera isn't here…not that she's that into giant robots but still…_

I was in my room putting on a clean shirt when I heard Trucy come into the apartment, but it wasn't only her. She had company. Ema. I groaned. Why? Why had she invited her?

"Hey, Truce? Can you come in here a sec?" I called and Trucy obediently appeared in my bedroom.

"What's up?"

"You invited Ema?"

Trucy smiled. "Sure, she's our friend and she wants to go, too. Why not?"

"Because wherever she goes Klavier shows up and they do that…that arguing flirty thing and it's gross."

Trucy shrugged. "I think you're just jealous, Polly."

"Jealous? I don't like Ema! If Klavier wants her he can have her-"

Trucy gave me a mischievous little smirk.

"**And you and I both know those rumors about me and Klavier aren't true.**" I swatted her and she laughed like she had just told the world's funniest joke.

"I love teasing you."

I rolled my eyes. I knew she loved it. She wouldn't have brought up the Klavier/Apollo rumors otherwise since all of us know it's total bunk. Yeah, he flirts with me, but I'm convinced he would flirt with any humanoid-like being. He might even flirt with Converters, but I preferred not to find out.

I sighed and walked into the living room. "Hey, Ema." I said trying not to sound surprised or annoyed by her presence. She grinned at me.

"Hey, Apollo. MUNCH MUNCH. Great job today. You really nailed Klav."

_Oh, God. She's already talking about him and "Klav"? EEEEWWW, gross!_

"Can we be expecting a visit from his royal rock god this evening?"

She put a finger on her chin in thought. "I don't know. I did mention we were going to see _Converters. _So, he may meet us at the theater if he has time."

_Great._

"Ema, why can't you two just decide if you're going out or not?"

"Oh, it's not the going out part we can't decide about. We can't decide how we **feel **about each other and MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH all his little fangirls who want to hook up with him for a night don't help. I mean scientifically speaking I guess we'd be categorized as friends with bene-."

I clapped my hands over Trucy's ears. "Ema! Truce does not need to be hearing stuff like that!" Ema rolled her eyes.

"Trucy's way more liberated than you…or her dad. Guys are so old fashioned. Always trying to get a ring on your finger…"

She seemed to have trailed off.

_She's not serious is she? There's no way Klavier's trying to convince Ema to settle down with him is there? I mean, I know he has this weird infatuation with her, but…if he's wanting to get serious with her that's gotta be new levels of masochism._

"Vera drew you a picture of naked women?" Trucy had seen one of Vera's drawings on my fridge and seemed to be trying to steer the conversation away from whatever was on Ema's mind and I took the bait.

Vera had started sending me sketches from her adventures in Europe. Often they were of the architecture or landscapes, but occasionally they were of people she saw or met on her journeys. In this case it was of people on her visit to a topless beach.

"Yeah, she went to a topless beach and drew me that. She said she thought I'd appreciate it."

Trucy lifted her eyebrows in surprise. "Vera went to a topless beach?"

"Good for her," said Ema. "She needs to get out there more."

_I think she can get out there more without showing total strangers her tits, but…_

"Turn over the picture and you'll see her self-portrait."

Trucy was appalled. "Polly, you should keep stuff like that to yourself!"

"Your parents looked at it." I teased her.

"My mom and dad have seen it?" Trucy scrunched her face in distaste.

I nodded.

"I'm sure it's very beautiful. MUNCH MUNCH As a scientist I don't know a lot about art, but Vera's got amazing talent even I can see that."

Ema touched the drawing.

"Go ahead, Ema. It's ok. It's art."

She removed the magnet from the sketch and turned it over to see my favorite part, a doodle Vera had drawn of herself on the topless beach not only with her top **on**, but with ludicrous amounts of additional clothing like a fur lined parka, earmuffs, gloves, and ski goggles to emphasis how little flesh she showed.

Trucy laughed.

"So, when are you two going to officially get back together?" Ema asked.

I shrugged. "I dunno. It doesn't seem like something that can happen over the phone. I can be in an ambiguous relationship for a while…"

Ema walked across the room and grinned. "Are you perhaps MUNCH MUNCH planning a little vacation for yourself?"

"Possibly." I said.

"Does Daddy know?" Trucy asked.

I shook my head.

"Didn't think so."

"Truce, please don't spill the beans. I know he'll be ok with it if I get to talk to him myself about it."

"Well, he's not going to be happy about it you know."

"Why's that?"

"Because he's scared to death about how Maya's doing."

"Well, it's not like **he's** the one leaving. It'll be fine."

"Polly, he wants you here in case he can't take cases…and he still thinks I need somebody to watch after me."

"Oh, you can look after yourself…wait…maybe I could pretend to be sick like they do in the movies and you could cover for me and I could sneak off to see Vera for a few days without him knowing."

"Polly, I'm not going to lie to Daddy, not even for you."

_Dammit._

"Ok, ok. I guess it doesn't make sense anyways since he has the magatama. I still can't believe Maya trusts him with that thing."

Ema looked at me as she popped another snackoo into her mouth. "Why can't you just tell her you want to get back together by phone?"

There was silence in the room.

_Ok, ok! I give! I'm hoping there might be make-up sex involved. Sue me for having dreams._

"Apollo, maybe you should just wait till Vera gets back. Then she'll see how stupidly in love with her you are. I mean anyone can tell just by taking a look at your bachelor pad."

"I happen to like lavender."

"MUNCH MUNCH. You sure you're not gay?"

I groaned. "I find it… soothing, ok?"

She raised an eyebrow. She loves pissing me off. The more she can get under my skin and annoy me the happier she is. She's like Klavier in that way, I guess.

"All I'm saying is that flying to Europe to visit her and sweep her off her feet sounds like a bad idea to me."

_Of course it does __**Ema**__, because you're Ema and don't have a romantic bone in your body, but Vera is Vera. She's not like you. She's wonderful and she will be so happy!_

"I don't think Vera will think so." I said.

"I think you'll be lucky MUNCH MUNCH if you don't piss her off. I mean you're **not** her boyfriend anymore. So, just showing up like that seems pretty presumptuous. What if she's on a date with another guy?"

_Eeeekkk!_

"She won't be."

Ema was staring off in the distance seemingly deep in thought as she ate her snackoos. "You sure, Apollo? You're not that great. You and I both know that. Vera can do way better than you and she's got a whole continent to pick from."

Trucy stepped between us. "Hey, hey you two. Polly is a great guy and Vera really cares for him. I'm sure it'll be fine and as far as we know she's not seeing anyone else."

"All I'm saying is that you two **broke up** and girls don't take it well when guys don't get what that means."

"Well, it's a good thing Vera doesn't think like you, because she's forgiving. Ema, she's going to take me back. I know it."

Ema made a face like one of her snackoos had gone bad. She probably knew I was right, but in typical Ema fashion she didn't want to admit it. She just stared off into space like she'd been doing.

"All I'm saying is you acted like an ass and now you've killed her fish."

"What?"

She pointed across the room to where she had been staring. Henry the Magnificent was floating belly up in his bowl in his place of honor on Vera's bureau.

"NO!" I must have looked like one of those cartoon characters that has eyes that pop out of their sockets when surprised. I ran across the room.

_Crap! Can you do CPR to a fish?_

"Henry? Henry?"

Trucy and Ema followed me over as I gently shook the bowl trying to rouse the obviously dead fish.

Trucy placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Polly, there's nothing you can do."

I scooped Henry out with my bare hand and looked at him resting in my palm.

_Oh, my God. I killed Vera's fish. How am I going to tell her? All I was supposed to do while she was gone was keep the apartment in decent shape and care for Henry. That was it and I failed!_

Still in shock I walked over to the couch cradling Henry. Ema and Trucy sat down nest to me one on either side peering down at Vera's deceased pet.

"Polly, you were feeding him, right?"

"Of course, I gave him food every morning before work." I gasped.

_Except for this morning. I barely had time to __**pee**__ this morning._

I looked up at Truce. "Oh my God, Truce. I killed him. I forgot to feed him this morning. Ema's right. Vera will never forgive me for this. I killed Henry the Magnificent."

"Apollo, are you crying? It's only a fish. I'm sure you didn't kill it. Scientifically speaking they have a very short life span. He was probably just old or you **overfed** him."

"She's never going to forgive me for this." I hung my head in shame.

"Polly, quit being stupid. Vera tolerates all kinds of dumb stuff you do. She'll forgive you for killing Henry."

"Yeah. I was only giving you a hard time. Vera knows how you are."

I turned my head toward Ema my eyes narrowed to slits. I felt like punching her but I had Vera's beloved companion resting in my hand still.

We all sat there in silence for a little bit till Ema asked, "How old was Henry anyways?" I realized I didn't really know. Vera had told me all about her dad giving Henry to her when she had really wanted a dog, but I'd never pressed her for a timeline. Everything before her father's murder seemed a world away to both of us. It had been a simpler time one in which, other than my abandonment as a baby, our lives had not been touched by the kind of drama and tragedy that characterized our world after his passing.

I shrugged. "I'm not sure."

"You know you could replace him with another fish before she comes back. Parents do it all the time with fish and hamsters… even parakeets."

"Ema, Polly shouldn't lie to Vera. She deserves to know the truth."

"Normally I'd agree, but scientifically speaking this is one of her only links left to her dad. I would think Polly would want to preserve that."

_Ema's right. She doesn't have many other things from that life that haven't been tainted by all of Kristoph's poison. Literally._

I grumbled. I'm a pretty honest guy. I'll lie about things like hairstyles or how tasty a meal is, but lying about Henry the Magnificent didn't seem right. Not when he'd been my responsibility. Not when he was the closest thing Vera and I had to a kid.

"No, I've gotta tell her the truth."

Trucy nodded her approval.

"Does your dad own a shovel?"

Ema looked at me like I was crazy.

"You don't bury fish, Apollo. You flush them."

"This isn't just a fish. This is Henry the Magnificent. This is **Vera's** fish and a gift from her dead father. Henry gets buried. You two go on to the movie without me."

I stood up and headed into the kitchen to see if I could find some kind of an appropriate box or container to bury Henry in.

"How bought that goldfish cracker box?" Ema pointed at a cardboard box on the top shelf that had contained fish shaped crackers that were probably stale by now.

_Vera's going to have a cow when she sees the state her kitchen is in._

"It's kind-of big…" I said gazing up at the box.

"Man up. Surely you can dig a hole that size." Ema retorted.

I pulled over the kitchen chair to stand on it so I could reach the box.

"Why are you still here?"

"Because we're coming to the memorial service," explained Trucy simply.

I had heard no discussion between Truce and Ema, but in some sort-of secret girl body language they had both decided to bag the movie idea and help me to memorialize Vera's pet.

"You guys don't need to do that."

"We can catch the movie another day. MUNCH MUNCH This is more important."

Ema's compassion surprised me, but she said, "I'm not doing it for you, Fish-murderer. I'm doing it for Vera. Henry meant a lot to her."

I nodded and hopped off the chair. Using a pair of scissors I cut down the box for Henry making him a little coffin complete with smiling fish on the lid. Meanwhile, Trucy went in search of a shovel.

I had just about finished the coffin when she returned from downstairs.

"Bad news. Dad says we don't have any kind of shovel. He also says Maya can't channel animal spirits."

"You actually asked that?"

Trucy shrugged. "Sure, why not. Maya's really talented. I thought she might be able to tell Vera he went peacefully or something."

Since I couldn't come up with any creative ideas of something to utilize as a shovel the three of us went to knock on Erma's door. Erma is the only neighbor I know by name and is our go-to person for all kinds of things we need but are too cheap to own ourselves.

Erma opened the door and the smell of cat urine drifted out.

"What can I do for you, Apollo? Nothing's wrong is it?"

We all have a bad habit of only visiting Erma when there is an emergency.

"Nothing too serious. I was wondering if I could borrow a shovel of some kind."

She looked at the tiny box Trucy was holding gently in her hands.

"What's in there?" She pointed.

"Henry the Magnificent."

A quizzical expression graced her face and I added, "He's a fish."

She chuckled. "Don't you know you're supposed to flush fish?"

_Give me the damn shovel, woman._

I still hadn't forgiven Erma for pinching my butt in the elevator one day when I had my hands full of laundry.

"Would you flush one of your cats? This was Vera's pet. We're burying him out back."

"**Vera's** fish, you say?" She nodded her head in apparent understanding. "No wonder. Here." She tossed a wad of keys at me that had an enormous stuffed cat keychain attached. "In the back of my car in the emergency supplies there's a little folding shovel. You can use that. Just bring me the keys back when you're done and tell Vera I'm sorry about Harry."

"Henry."

"Henry. Sorry."

I nodded and breathed a sigh of relief. I hadn't expected burying Henry to be this big an ordeal and I still hadn't told Vera about him dying.

Trucy and Ema went to scavenge for something to use to mark the burial spot and I started digging the hole. We had decided we couldn't make the grave too obvious as the landscapers might tell the landlord someone had created a pet cemetery and it might cause a problem for us and the other tenants. Having our landlord maintain his or her absentee status was in our best interest and definitely in Crazy Cat Lady Erma's best interest.

Trucy and Ema came out accompanied by Phoenix and Maya. Maya handed me something round and flat that looked like mother of pearl but had a lavender hue to it. "It's off of a hair clasp Nick gave me when I was about Vera's age. You think it'll be ok?"

I nodded. It looked like something Vera would have picked out.

Maya placed her hand on her pregnant belly and Nick wrapped his arms around her as I placed Henry's smiling fish cracker coffin in the hole. Then I heard the distinctive sound of Klavier's motorcycle.

_What the hell is __**he**__ doing here?_

I groaned, but Ema turned and in a moment was back with us accompanied by Klavier. Apparently, this funeral was open to anyone and everyone.

"Herr forehead. Wait just a moment," he said pulling from his pocket a small corsage with pink and orange flowers and placed it on the coffin.

_Great. Now I feel bad._

"I think we should say something. I'll go first." Maya said.

"Henry you were a good listener and you were always there when Vera needed you. Thank you for that. Now you, Nick."

"Isn't making a eulogy at a fish funeral something on my things-I-won't-do-even-for-you-list?"

"Maybe, but it's not for **me**. It's for Vera and Henry."

Phoenix rolled his eyes. "Ok, ok…um…you always looked peaceful even when we were freaking out and I guess that's a good thing. It can be comforting…and you brought Vera a lot of happiness…and that's a good thing."

Maya grinned at Nick and kissed him on the cheek. She obviously believed he had done well.

Trucy shared how she liked when Vera let her feed Henry and Ema talked about how she had taken some flack about allowing me to take care of Henry while I was a suspect in Vera's kidnapping.

"But it was worth it, because Henry deserved to be cared for by someone who cared for Vera."

I smiled a little.

_Under that tough exterior Ema isn't that bad, I guess._

Then Klavier sang a line of some song about raging waters and fish going upstream.

_He doesn't have a bad voice. Too bad you can never hear it over all those damn guitar riffs he does. I swear I even hear them when he plays air-guitar in court!_

Then it was my turn. Me. The fish-murderer.

"Um, Henry, I'm sorry I forgot to feed you this morning. I was in a hurry, because someone-" I heard a chuckle from Klavier "Moved my trial to an earlier time without discussing it with me. Anyways, I hope that isn't why you died. I know Vera will miss you. I know she's missing you right now and that if she could have you with her in Europe she would have. Instead of leaving you with me."

Klavier put a hand on my shoulder. "For what it's worth. I am also sorry, Herr Forehead and I will apologize to the fraulein when she returns."

I nodded. Really, it wasn't his fault, but it was nice of him to say.

"So, ah…rest in peace, Henry."

~xxxx~

After the funeral we all went into the office and played some board games and hung out. It was too late to make the movie and I was just killing time before Vera's nightly call when I would have to fess up to Henry's death. Eventually the call came and I headed upstairs to talk to her in private.

"Hey, Polly! How's it going? I went to the most amazing bookstore yesterday! It was just like something in a movie. It had all these old, old books and the man who owns it looked like he stepped out of a fairy tale or something."

"Neat." I said unenthusiastically.

"Is something wrong?"

"Yeah, sort-of. Vera, I'm really sorry, but Henry died."

I heard a little gasp of surprise.

"Vera, I'm really sorry. I forgot to feed him this morning and then when me and Trucy and Ema were headed out to the movies Ema noticed he was dead."

"It's ok, Polly."

"I think I killed him, sweetie."

"Polly, don't be silly. Henry could go without food for a day. You were changing his water right?"

"Yeah."

"See. Fish just don't live very long."

"Yeah, we were wondering about that. How old was Henry the Magnificent?"

"Six years."

"Six years?"

Vera was silent. "I think in actuality there may have been more than one Henry the Magnificent. My dad must have replaced the original one with an identical one at some point, probably more than once. I don't know how he did it, though, since he never went out. Maybe Kristoph helped him. I don't know for sure, but a few years ago I read that there was no way Henry could still be alive, but I decided not to ask Dad about it. I decided to humor my dad and pretend Henry had a magic fishbowl. Like it was enchanted or filled with water form the fountain of youth or something."

I groaned. "Ema tried to get me to just buy you a replacement, too. She said you'd never know. Now I wish I had."

"No, Polly. I'm glad you told me the truth, but please don't beat yourself up about it. I only wish I could have said goodbye. Henry and I have spent a lot of time together."

"Well, we all said a few words before we laid him to rest."

"Is that lawyer-speak for flushing?" She teased.

"No. We buried him out back!"

Vera's laughter was like music. "You mean you **buried **Henry the Magnificent?"

"Yes and everybody said nice things about him even Ema."

"Oh, Polly. That's so sweet. I love you."

I felt warm all over. This was good. She wasn't mad and I hadn't lied to her.

"So, how was the movie? Trucy emailed me earlier saying you guys were going to see _Converters_."

"Oh, we didn't make it."

Vera was again quiet and then in a little voice she said, "Polly, are you telling me that you missed out on seeing a robot movie so you could have a funeral for my fish?"

"Yes."

_Ugh! She's going to laugh at me now isn't she? I've made a fool of myself._

"And you're not even my boyfriend."

_Ouch. Vera, you sure know how to rub it in._

I tried to find some good in the situation.

"It's ok. Now when one of those annoying reporters asks me to share some embarrassing secret about Klavier I can tell them about him singing to a dead fish."

"You took such good care of him. Thank you."

_I did it because I love you, Vera. I swear I don't have some weird fish fetish. Honest._

"And Polly I really appreciate you being honest with me. I'm not mad that my dad did what he did, but somehow I feel better that you could be honest with me. I'm a big girl now, after all."

I would have said I would never lie to her, but I was keeping a secret, a big secret.

_I'm coming to visit you, sweetie, and I __**really**__ hope that soon you won't be able to say I'm not your boyfriend, unless you're lying which of course you do even less than me._

"Oh, Polly, I miss you so much."

"Don't worry, sweetie. We'll be together before you know it."

"I wish." She said wistfully.

"You wouldn't really tell the paparazzi about Klavier singing to Henry would you?"

I grinned evilly. "In a heartbeat."

_I might not be a fish murderer but I'm no saint. I just hope I'm a good enough person to have an angel all to myself once again._

**Risenfromash:**I don't yet know what the title of the next story in the arc will be so if you're worried you might miss it private message (PM) and I'll PM you when I post it so you can continue to follow Polly/Vera and Nick/Maya's adventures. Thank you for reading and thank you very much to those of you who take the time to review. You keep me motivated!


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